Deron Williams should be at the top of Portland's off-season free agent list, that is if he decides to ditch Jay-Z and Brooklyn. Credit: Jim O

This summer could make or break it for the Portland Trail Blazers as the organization should be able to capitalize on having anywhere from $19.9 million to $25.9 million to spend on a wide variety of free agents. The Blazers are looking to move forward after a highly disappointing 2011-12 season that saw the loss of Brandon Roy, Greg Oden, firing of Nate McMillan and a mid-season collapse that ended three-straight playoff appearances.

Even without a legit General Manager or coach, the Blazers have two first round picks and should be able to do some serious damage by loading up during the draft, luring some free agents, or possibly making a blockbuster trade. Portland hasn’t been the number one destination for superstar players due in part to the rain, questionable front office, and more rain, but the Blazers will have the space and money to bring a big name or two to go alongside LaMarcus Aldridge and Nicolas Batum. Those big names might be enough to bring the team back into playoff contention.

The major concerns for the Blazers this off season are at point and center. The usual. Not a lot of luck in those departments over the past years as Portland has gone through good-but-not-good-enough point guards in Steve Blake, Andre Miller, and Raymond Felton.

Portland has had worse luck with centers. Everyone knows that. Greg Oden the number one overall pick from the 2007 Draft out of Ohio State, played only 82 games in five total seasons. Portland finally cut ties with GO this season.

There are a few big names on the list of available free agents this year, and a couple All-Stars that Portland will no doubt have their eyes on. Here are just a few of those free agents (and one possible trade candidate) that the Blazers should really consider getting some early calls into:

STEVE NASH

One point guard that Blazers fans probably wouldn’t mind seeing suit up in Portland is Mr. Steve Nash, the guru of point guards and distributing. As an unrestricted free agent, Nash might have played his final season in Phoenix and will no doubt be trying to win a ring before he gets any older. That’s one clear problem with this scenarion, Nash is 38-years old. We’d be lucky to get a season or two from him before he would call it quits, but he’s a perfect for helping LaMarcus continue to improve down low. Not to mention the fact that Nash can manage some scoring by himself. He’s coming off one of his better seasons, even though he has been little more than an afterthought in recent years, averaging 12.5 points and 10.7 rebounds in 31 minutes without much fanfare. Nash is a straight up veteran and his leadership would do wonders for the Blazers. It’s a long shot for Portland but they have been linked as a landing spot for Nash for the last couple of seasons. He would be a valuable piece for any team interested and will be very popular once July 1 hits.

DERON WILLIAMS

Another one of those “maybes” for Portland, the team and the city would love to have the three-time All Star but it’ll be very difficult to snatch him away from other attractive suitors. Should Williams choose to bail on Brooklyn, Portland might be in the mix along with a number of other high-caliber teams including his hometown Dallas Mavericks. As with Nash, Williams gives the point position a tremendous boost, helping Aldridge continue to grow and doing some scoring himself. Deron was practically the leading scorer for the Nets averaging 21 points and 8.7 assists in 36 minutes per game. The Blazers have the money to go after Williams and the large contract that comes with him, and he will be hungry to get back into the playoffs and contend for a championship, that is if Williams is open to joining the Blazers and coming back to the Northwest Division after playing in Utah for so many years. It will be a difficult task for Portland’s front office to land one of these two marquee point guards (Nash or Williams), but nothing worth doing is ever easy.

ROY HIBBERT

Roy Hibbert’s recent dominant play against the Orlando Magic in this years playoffs is certainly causing his stock to rise. Only 25-years old and standing at 7’2”, Hibbert is exactly what Portland needs following the heartbreaking departure of Greg Oden. Hibbert, currently with the Indiana Pacers, was elected to his first All-Star game this season and will be the target of many teams looking for a big man. In 2011-12, Hibbert averaged career-highs in points, rebounds, blocked shots, and field-goal percentage and can easily become a  triple-double average kind of guy. For instance, in Game 1 of Indiana’s first round series against the Magic, big Roy recorded nine blocked shots. Because of his positive production and Indiana’s advancment further into the postseason, you can bet the Pacers will want to keep Hibbert. Beyond his current team too, he should have tons of phone calls asking for his services. He could be the young center that the Blazers are desperate to find. He hasn’t had much attention the last couple of years; this summer should be a new experience for him.

RAY ALLEN

To help with the weak shooting guard position, Boston’s pure scoring Ray Allen would be a nice pick-up. The NBA’s all-time leader in regular season 3-point field goals made, the Celtics wouldn’t be happy to part ways with such a fan favorite and major part of their 2008 Championship team. But Boston is getting old and has tried to deal Allen to places like Memphis to get themselves some younger players. Portland have to end up spending some of their Nicolas Batum money to get Ray, but having a scoring machine coming off the bench or in the starting lineup might be pretty sweet. Allen’s numbers have dipped since the 2007-08 season, and he now averages 14.2 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 2.4 assists, while shooting .453 from beyond the arc in 34 minutes played per game. The Blazers will be a long-shot and might not even make much of an impact on Allen’s radar, but if he decided to come back to the Pacific Northwest and fill in for the next two-three seasons, he would do wonders for a Portland team desperate for scoring.

RAJON RONDO

One of the names that I would absolutely love to see rock the black and red is Rajon Rondo. Rondo at the point would help the Blazers immediately, and playing as a  complement to Aldridge, he could make the Blazers a serious threat. So Rondo isn’t exactly a free agent, but he has been brought up as a potential trade piece many times before. Boston’s “Big Three” of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen are getting older, and the championship window is all but closed. Boston would need to get something of serious value in exchange for Rondo, who is next to Derrick Rose on the list of the best point guards in the league. Rondo finished the 2011-12 season averaging 10.8 points, 11.7 assists, and 4.8 rebounds while playing 36 minutes per game. Better yet, Rondo closed out the regular season with 24 consecutive games of 10 or more assists and is a pure “pass first” PG. Rondo’s 10-assist games streak is the longest such streak the NBA  since John Stockton logged a streak of 29  10-assist games back in 1992. It is also a Celtics record. At only 26-years old, Rondo still has plenty of years left to play, and has playoff and championship experience the Blazers certainly need.

An All-Star season from Roy Hibbert has turned him into a key free agent for the summer of 2012. Credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

Nicolas Batum provided one of the few highlights Thursday night against the Celtics before exiting early with an injury, wait for it, to his knee. Photo courtesy of the Oregonian.

In fairness to the Blazers, it seems that Portland can really only play Boston tight once a season. In 2008-09, Portland was blown out in Boston 93-78, only to turn around 11 games later and beat the Celtics at the Rose Garden 91-86. One of the most exciting games in recent memory, that 2008 home version of Blazers vs Celtics featured a team without Brandon Roy, due to injury, and included an infamous back-of-the-head slap from LaMarcus Aldridge to Kevin Garnett. It was also the last time Portland beat the Boston Celtics.

The trend continued the following season; Portland lost in Boston again in an overtime thriller 98-95, I’m sure everybody remembers the big time three from Ray Allen in that game, then were run out of their own gym later in the same month 96-76. What’s the point of that brief trip down memory lane? To say this, the good news is that Portland got to play well against Boston once in 2010-11. The bad news, that game wasn’t on Thursday night.

Thursday was not Portland’s evening. Although it was never a blow out, it also was never that close. For what it’s worth, Boston is one of the best teams in the league. They are built around veteran players, they get up for games every night, and the execute their game plan. They rushed Portland on offense, made the Blazers work for every thing, and were able to basically get whatever they wanted on offense. Boston also has something Portland does not. Depth. Thursday, if one set wasn’t working, or one guy was not getting it done, the C’s could go to their bench. When Portland’s offense went to sleep, there was nothing to do but wait for it to come back on line. In clicked in with under two minutes to go, but at that point it was a case of too little, too late.

LaMarcus Aldridge didn’t struggle in quite the same way he did in the Blazers’ last outing, but nothing was easy for him Thursday. Using KG, Glen Davis, and Kendrick Perkins, the Celtics made LaMarcus work. He was up to the task a few times, but getting banged down low every single possession can wear on a guy after a while. LA’s handles were sloppy, and when trying to force the issue, he ended up turning the ball over. LaMarcus finished with 17 points, and added an impressive 16 rebounds, but it took him 20 shot attempts to get there. Also LA shot only two free throws, meaning that for as well as Boston was doing at taking away his inside game, they did it all without fouling. LaMarcus could have helped himself out by trying to initiate contact, but a few body blows from Perkins or Garnett, and it could have been an even longer night for the Blazers.

The big question over the last few months has been, who is going to be the Blazers’ second consistent scorer. It has rotated most nights, but one thing has been pretty clear. When the shooters don’t show up the Blazers don’t win. Not including LaMarcus, four guys took 10 or more shots Thursday night. Of those four, Andre Miller made the most shots, going 6-of-15 for 14 points, and Patty Mills made the least, 3-of-10 for seven points. The poorest shooting night came from Wesley Matthews, 4-of-15 for 12 points, and it would have been a lot worse had Wesley not buried two threes late in the fourth quarter. As a team, the Blazers shot 37%. Even with almost 30 more shot attempts than the Celtics, those kind of shooting numbers don’t usually lead to a win.

If there is a positive that can be taken away from Thursday, and I feel like there is, it was that Portland showed heart, and never really gave up. The Celtics are a tough team, one of the best in the league, and they got there by playing tough defense, being mean, and playing smart, efficient, and effective basketball. Portland has been ravaged by injuries, I’ll get to the most recent injury momentarily, and is still trying to figure out what kind of team it really wants to be. The Blazers came into Thursday’s match-up serious underdogs, even on their home floor, but they never rolled over. Portland was down by as many as 15 points late in the fourth quarter, with guys like Von Wafer and Semih Erden on the floor for the C’s. The Blazers kept fighting, managing to cut the lead to five with under a minute to play before the game was basically sealed by a Kevin Garnett offensive rebound. One reason Portland stuck around Thursday was obviously because emptying the bench isn’t an option when you have no bench, but that shouldn’t take away from the overall effort that the Blazers showed in the final seconds Thursday night.

Portland has the unenviable task of moving from hosting the second best team in the league to hosting the best team in the league on consecutive nights. When asked post game about preparing for the San Antonio Spurs, both Coach Nate McMillan and LaMarcus Aldridge were pragmatic. Rest a day, get treatment, hit the gym, practice, practice, practice. That’s the beauty of the NBA, there’s always another game right around the corner.

Portland can take solace in knowing that at the very least they don’t have to play the Celtics again in 2010-11, or if they do it won’t be until the NBA Finals. They can look forward to next season, knowing that they’ll get at least one good shot at this team.

A couple of brief thoughts on the evening as a whole:

• Nicolas Batum played only 14 and a half minutes Thursday, leaving in the middle of the second quarter and not returning. Nic complained of pain in his knee, there’s a shocker, and will undergo an MRI tomorrow morning. Nicolas was upbeat when addressing the media following the game, saying that he knows when he needs surgery, like when he knew that he needed shoulder surgery, and he knows that he DOES NOT need surgery this time. The MRI will tell for sure. As of right now losing Nic would be a big time bummer. LaMarcus said post game that he’s somewhat numb to the injury thing, and as a whole I’m sure Blazer Nation is also. That being said, everyone should do whatever they can in their power to ensure that Nicolas does not need surgery. I feel like having written that sentence I may have just jinxed him.
• One surprising side effect of Nicolas going down to injury was minutes for Luke Babbitt. It wasn’t Luke’s finest performance, but then again he did spend some time guarding Paul Pierce which isn’t easy for anyone. In the first half Luke didn’t seem to want to shoot. In the second half he launched a corner three on one of his first possessions. I couldn’t tell which was a better strategy, having Luke shoot or having Luke not shoot, the outcomes were strikingly similar. Post game, Nate said he wanted Luke to shoot when he was on the floor. The good thing for Luke is that teams are likely not going to defend him. That means he’ll get open looks, he just has to knock them down. In eight and a half minutes of play, Luke scored two points, making 1-of-2 field goals.
• The Blazers marketing team is pushing the three goggles to the limit. Cardboard three goggles were on sale for the first time Thursday night. It didn’t help with Portland’s shooting though. The Blazers were 4-of-16 from deep, with three of those deep balls coming at the end of the fourth quarter.
• There were lots of Celtics fans in the Rose Garden Thursday. Dante Cunningham called out Rip City on Twitter to that end following the game.
• Speaking of Celtics fans, Bill Walton was in the house Thursday. He and I share a birthday in case you were wondering.

Thursday's game was one of the more physical games of the season. Luckily nobody was hurt expect Paul Pierce and Nicolas Batum. Photo courtesy of the Oregonian.

Box Score

Standings

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject

Just kidding, this isn’t one of those pieces. Outside of some courtesy phone calls, the Blazers aren’t going anywhere near any of the many free agents expected to get max or near-max contracts. Beyond that, those guys aren’t worth your time discussing. What is worth discussing is what Portland can do with the Mid Level Exception.

Since the Blazers will be over the salary cap once the extensions to LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy kick in, Portland will have the MLE in hand to offer any free agent a contract of up to five years at the league-average salary, which will probably come in a little over $6 million per year. That may not seem like much, but both good and overrated players sign for the MLE every year, and if used correctly it’s a great tool to fill out a rotation with specialists and role players.

It can also royally screw your salary cap situation if you either A. Use the MLE too often or B. Use it to overpay players like Marcus Banks, Chris Duhon or Brian Cardinal.

That said, let’s take a look at some of Portland’s potential options this summer. Clearly, Portland’s strategy in free agency will hinge on the sort of players they get in the draft, so when going down the list, assume we’re talking about each player as though they wouldn’t be overly superfluous with recent picks. As you’ll see after the jump, the primary theme is shooting, shooting, shooting.
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